Snow stats: Dublin accumulations largest since 1982

Snow drifts of 60cm reported in parts of Wicklow and Carlow

Met Éireann has lifted its blizzard warning but the streets of Dublin are eerily quiet with very few cars, no public transport and only a small number of people making their through the city on foot. Video: Bryan O'Brien / Daniel Lloyd

A cyclist make his way along Ormond Quay Dublin in the snow. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons.

Dublin has experienced some of the highest snowfall in the country and is on course to record accumulations of up 30cms.

The weather station at Casement Aerodrome recorded snow accumulations of 23cms overnight with more expected on both Friday and Saturday. Similar figures were recorded at the weather station at Dublin Airport.

This is some of the heaviest snows experienced since January 1982.

The heaviest snowfalls overnight on Thursday were in Dublin, Wicklow, Kildare, Carlow, Kilkenny, south Tipperary and east Cork.

National Emergency Co-ordination Group chairman Sean Hogan said 60cms of snow accumulated in drifts in parts of the Wicklow and in Carlow.

Met Éireann forecaster Vincent O’Shea said they are anticipating further snowfall on Friday evening, Friday night and into Saturday morning.

“The snow will fall in exactly the places that have already fared worst,” he warned.

The snow will remain on the ground as freezing temperatures are expected to remain on Friday and into Saturday.

“There is going to be no rapid thaw at all,” he said, “the temperatures are rising a tad relative to what they are, but we are not out of the woods yet.

“We are expecting a couple of severe frosts so there will be a lot of lying snow and some fresh snowfalls expected in places on Saturday.”

The cold start to March follows on from an exceptionally cold February. Dublin Airport recorded an average temperature in February of just 3.4 degrees almost two degrees lower than the monthly average of 5.3 degrees. The average temperature at Cork Airport was 4.1 degrees and the monthly average for February is 5.7 degrees.